Human Trafficking

The term human trafficking, also trafficking in persons, describes a new form of slavery. This phenomenon affects thousands of people annually, mostly women and children who are trafficked and exploited nationally as well as internationally.

In 2000 the United Nations generated according to the international law at the general assembly in Palermo the "Convention against Transnational Organized Crime". Furthermore they developed the "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children" which defines human trafficking as the following in Article 3:

• "Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
• The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
• The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered "trafficking in persons" even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
• "Child" shall mean any person under eighteen years of age."¹

Literature

[1] Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. United Nations, Palermo: 2000